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A quick thread on the mechanics of Parliament “taking control of Brexit”.
This is hard for it to do.
First, the EU (or any other foreign government) won’t negotiate with an ad hoc group of MPs: they want to negotiate with Ministers.
Second, international negotiations need the legal and administrative resources that only a government has at its disposal.
Third, in our system, the government has control over the Parliamentary timetable.
Though that could be changed (amend standing order 14) that then opens the way for constant and debilitating argument about timetable and makes filibustering just too easy (which was why SO14 was introduced in the first place).
There is also the problem that the Government needs to agree to legislation that has money implications. The effect of this rule is uncertain in the Brexit legislation context but it is certainly a potential issue.
Conclusion: for those MPs opposed to no deal and prepared to go for either a softer Brexit or a referendum (a majority, I think) the best way of securing it is to put forward a (temporary) “national unity” Government to take the next few steps.
Those steps would most obviously include giving the HoC a choice between a softer Brexit and a referendum, and then taking forward legislation and negotiating (extension/revised political declaration) with the EU accordingly.
Whether such a national unity government is politically possible is beyond my skill set: but legally and administratively, it’s by far the most straightforward course.
